Thursday, 17 December 2009

All Wrapped Up.....

Finally, this morning I finished wrapping my last Christmas present. Whew, I was cutting it close because they all have to be taken up to York this weekend. I am feeling quite proud of the presents I have made this year. In fact the only person who has a bought present is the OH. Everyone else has received something that I spent a lot of time and effort creating. I also made care labels for everyone who received a knitting gift.

One of the gifts I am happiest with, is for my friend's little boy. It is a toy robot.

This is an Alan Dart pattern. I started knitting it in May when the magazine containing the pattern was printed. I knit it up pretty quickly then ground to a halt when it came to sewing up. I started to sew it up this week and it took 2 days!!!! However with the amazing jointed limbs and quirky character I think the gift will be well loved.

The mattress stitch that I attempted in May was appalling. As my technique has improved the rest of the toy looked much better than the back.

I think that the recipient of this gift isn't going to worry about wonky seams, even if I do.

The other gift I finished this week is for another friend's little girl. I decided to sew this gift and used printable fabric to make the outline for my embroidery. One of the things that put me off embroidery in the past was my inability to draw. Working out the outlines on my PC and then printing it made me so happy! Here is the result of my first embroidery attempt.

As you may have guessed, Katie likes pink! I found a great pink fat quarter in my stash and decided to make it into a pencil case. This wasn't as easy as anticipated and I ended up folding it into a triangle shape along with some wadding. I then folded the triangle into the shape I wanted for the pencil case, like the back of an envelope.

To cover up the slightly wonky top I used some felt to bind the top edge. I then sewed the embroidered panel onto the front.

I hand stitched in some velcro to fasten the pencil case.

Once the project was complete I filled it with pencils and crayons and wrapped it up with a notepad.

I hope Katie enjoys drawing!

I think that is all I can show you now until after Christmas. I will post photos of undisclosed projects when the recipients have received their gifts. Until then I am going to try and make something for myself again. It seems like a long time since I was a selfish knitter!